The Book of Stitches: On Teaching Bomb Logic
by bmay
Summary: One Guardian is set on the path to right the wrongs of old. The plots and desires of our ancestors whose vanity set doom for ruin will be atoned, and a great many hidden things will be revealed from the dark corners of the Sol System. Join new and familiar characters on a journey to truly let the past die, so humanity may flourish in its new Age of Light and Conquest.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Cold. That's what I remember of being born. For some reason, who I was decided to die in a harsh, unforgiving wasteland of ice and snow. My awakening was not calm or collected, some gentle waking where I got to stretch my limbs in the light of a new world. No, it was dark, cold, and unstable.

"Well, good to see you," the Thing that Resurrected me said. Her voice calm even amongst the cold night.

"W-w-w-where am I?" I stammered. I was wearing nothing to help against the bitter weather, wind blew through me and chilled me to my bones. Simple ragged robes hung from my frame.

"South, far South," the thing said. She was an inverted triangle, rotating along her vertices with the occasional click. "I'm a Ghost, the thing that brought you back, and by the looks of things I'll be bringing you back many times to come."

"W-w-w-w-why?" I stuttered, my teeth chattering as I looked around. The sky above was lit with stars, as far as I could see. Though on the northern horizon I could see a wall of darkness, and the wind blew from there. Doom washed over me in waves as I ran ideas through my head, finding shapes and pictures for the things I knew. "I'll die."

"I'll bring you back," my Ghost said, "But I'll be honest, this isn't going to be fun."

"What?" I asked, feeling myself fade. Darkness began to overtake me.

"This," my Ghost said, as I fell to the snow, warmth overtaking me in a wash of euphoria and lethargy.

A vision took me then. I could see an expanse of ice. Grey and metallic sheets of ore striated the surface of this world, and the wind blew cold and unforgiving. I could see something hanging above me, a world of pale-yellow light and rings broken by vents of steam from the surface below me.

The ground shook as my Ghost brought me back into the agony of reality. "That, that is going to be unpleasant," she said.

"Why bring me back into this?" I asked, exasperated and frustrated.

"You didn't choose to die here, but you did," my Ghost said. "Now we have to deal with it. Not something either of us can Control."

_Control_ I remember thinking. _I'll never lose control again_. I remember wanting to shape my desires, bring warmth and comfort, something from all this bitter nothing that was there. But nothing came, no flame or guiding light. Only the wall of the stormfront growing closer. It at least gave me some idea of where to go.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"North, but everywhere is north of here," my Ghost chuckled. "I lost all sense of direction getting here."

"The storm," I said, "best head into the wind toward it."

"Fair," my Ghost said. "Won't be east."

"I don't imagine it will," I said, "What's my name, you brought me back might as well give me a name."

My ghost clicker and whirred in the air for a moment, then cast light in front of us. "Jude, Vann Jude will do."

"Then I'll call you Fey," I said. "Come on Fey, lots of death ahead."

I began to walk, the long slow slough toward what I thought was north. Fey would change my course occasionally, especially when I fell to the harsh climate. She illuminated my path, for all the good that it did. Emitting a strangely warm blue glow from the central eye within her frame. But it did little good; everything was the same. White below, black above, and then the storm hit. Pelted with fat flakes of snow and stinging sleet that buffeted against the clothes Fey had said she fashioned for me. Lightning and thunder rolling about me, encompassing my mind with the terror and awe of life. I was alive, I hadn't been some time ago, but now I was.

This cold desperate time of dying over and over proved against a doubt that I was alive. I remember when I wasn't. A place of infinite oblivion, of annihilation within a place with no context or reason, and no logic or consequence. I knew it, it lived in me from that day forward. But it was a hope for another day, a prayer to the universe that didn't care. One day I would be within the womb of Nothing again. To walk there with no form, no will, and no self but being and being and being. That is the day I knew I would reject what many later would call the power of the Void. Although I knew it, as many of my kind did, I saw it not as a place to make deals or draw power. No, it was a place that could easily become the end while I still drew breath. Because if I let myself, I would never leave the hallowed halls of infinity. That would be a betrayal of purpose to a new logic that drove me: to live and live and live again, until I couldn't live anymore. The storm didn't let up for a long time. What felt like years passed in that place, the death made time seem dilated and distorted. What's worse is that it remained dark through the entirety of that trial, the thing I came to know as my truest test of my new being.

Cold fingers began to creep up my back, becoming warm and comforting as my skin began to pucker with the new and exciting feeling of power. I stopped my march through the storm, and instead looked skyward to see lighting flash and hear thunder roll as the wind moved to push me from my stance. Light, I felt a Light within me spark with my own newfound logic. I rejected this thing I knew was the end, this Void, and I knew no Flame or Sunlight would comfort me. A quiet end or a blazing star, I felt pulled to make a choice as the feeling in me swelled and heaved with each gust of wind that whipped the snow and sleet into my face. Something in me told me I knew these things, knew them well, and that it wasn't my place nor the path I was meant to tread. I felt my hairs stand on end as I saw the electricity of life begin to crackle bright and blue from my being. Webbing and arching from my fingertips and splaying out into the snow beneath me. It sounded like my bones creaking against each other. I could hear each muscle in my body strain and tighten as the currents flowed through me in a tireless impulse. Life, I will harness Life.

With that I called out to the storm, this force of nature, as if to strike a bargain. I will not know the bliss of the Void, save in fleeting dreams. I will never know the comfort of Flame save for the spark within my soul. I will call no logic, save for that which preserves the life I cherish. This I swore in front of my Ghost, in front of the Storm that saved me, on the cold lands of my new life. It was then that lightning struck me, fast and hot the color of the open sky I didn't know I knew.

But I knew I was dead, but I didn't die. The electricity, the charge, the raw power of Being stayed constant in me, and lifted me from the ground. Then settled me down on the steam and flash-frozen ice where I once stood. With that, the storm passed. The cold no longer felt unbearable. I looked up to see ribbons of light. Vibrant greens and blues hung below a night brilliantly bejeweled with stars as the galaxy splayed out before me.

"The Aurora Australis," Fey said, hovering near me. "Quite the sight isn't it?"

"Yeah," I said. We looked up for some time, watching the light twist and arc in the sky. I began to walk, finding a star that seemed unmoving, and headed toward it. Somehow, the cold didn't bother me as much, it seemed to be a part of me now, something I couldn't escape.

"Where exactly are we headed," I asked. I had died some few hours back in my sleep, only awakening to the light of my Ghost. It was still dark. I knew there was a sun, a sun somewhere to one day give me light. But not here, not now, not in this place.

"First things first we need a way off this continent," Fey said. "This whole landmass is Ice, the Southern Pole of Earth. A continent some don't believe exists anymore."

"Why is that?" I asked, standing up and feeling the power in me change. It lifted me from the ground, just above the snow. I could feel the Light in me making my will real. I only had to pose a question, and discover the solution to make it happen. "How can people stop believing in a continent?"

"Maybe because of what's happened outside of it," Fey said. "This Continent, Antarctica, is gone."

"What do you mean gone?" I asked, testing out the new feelings and discoveries. I could levitate, that was something that could make travel easy. "Then where are we?"

"Somewhere else," Fey said simply. "Like the whole of the continent is trapped where it is but not when it is."

"Awash in time," I guessed, "Cast adrift,"

"Something like that," Fey agreed. "It took some doing, but I got here, all to find you."

"Why?"

"I'm still asking that question, by my measure it hasn't been too long since the Collapse," Fey hovered next to me as I floated just above the snow. "Not bad, but you'll need to refine it, you'll wear yourself out."

"I imagine things must be different outside of this place," I said looking up at the sky. The stars hadn't moved, I was certain of it. Ever since I came back it was night time, and the same storm rolled over me on occasion, but the stars had never moved. I had been brought back around 50 times since I made the realization. I was getting my numbers down, Fey needed to do less to keep me going with each passing moment. "I also imagine it will be tough getting out of here." Another passing year, or what felt like it, we had covered much but found ourselves trying to find the sense in our prison.

"Most likely this whole area is trapped within a dip in space-time," Fey said. "The fight between the Traveler and the Darkness warped reality, climate, and topography of much of the planet, I wouldn't be surprised if things won't be the same as when I left."

Another death, four deaths, seven, and then fourteen. More unmoving time and still night skies. The storm passing in waves and the greens and blues of the Aurora to start the cycle. I asked about when she left, when she was born.

"I was born of the Traveler, to find you and bring you back," Fey said. "By my estimate it wasn't that long ago, some twenty years. But with the way things are? I have no clue when we'll be getting back."

It was a long time going, and then longer still. A march of practice with my power.

"What's this power I hold?" I asked Fey one day.

"The Light," Fey said. "A gift from the Traveler. You have been chosen to Guard Humanity against the Night."

"A lot of good I can do trapped here," I said, the storm was approaching again. It became thrilling to see the black wall of clouds. They crackled with context, with the raw unbridled logic of Life. Every little particle in its proper place to birth jagged scars of plasma. Primal forces were mine to channel, mine to control.

_Control, I Call to Storm to Control it's flow, it's current._ I remember thinking as I practiced with the power. Calling down lightning from above, and conjure sparks from my hands. I began to die less and less, Fey seemed to grow concerned.

"You're dying less," Fey said, sounding worried.

"Yes, I think so," I replied, hovering just above the snow. I would kick off the ground to push myself forward, finding the small currents of wind and the shift of space-time to guide my glide.

"I'm afraid that even if we leave this place," Fey began, eyeing me. Her axis spun like when she was thinking. "I'm afraid this place will never leave you."

"I don't think it ever will, Fey," I said, landing in a patch of powdery snow. My thin boots were ragged and full of holes. If we ever found it, I would need proper clothes, that seemed like a good goal. "I have no idea how long we've been here Fey. A part of me will never leave, trapped in time from the moment you brought me back." I knew it was true, some version of me stuck to be dying over and over again as time marched onward. Always, this land would mark my heart and mind for as long as I drew breath.

Sometimes we'd go in circles, sometimes we'd make decent time, but most of the time it was a slow and steady march in one direction. Fey had a good feeling about the direction, though I was less certain. Cresting dunes of snow, bearing the storm, marveling at the way reality had bent in such an event as a match between this being known as the Traveler, and its adversary the Darkness.

Fey and I talked most of the time, talking of the Collapse, the Light, and the System of Sol that expanded outward into the universe. Other times we let silence take over the journey. It felt as if an eternity passed while I refined my Light, my power, and came to call upon the power of the Storm at will with little to no effort. Gusts of wind, lighting strikes, even tangled webs of electricity, these would become my tools one day, but for now they were expression, a form of mastery of mind and body. Boiling down what worked and didn't by running experiments in my head became a common past time, and I would share my thoughts on the universe, causality, nature, and philosophy with Fey at many a joyous time. Solitude was my cradle, the Sky my teacher, and Fey my best companion.

"Could you bent reality along an unseen Axis?" I asked one day. "A circle expands in all directions, even ones we can't perceive, doesn't that mean there are right angles to all right angles?"

"You'd need to ask someone who can see those angles," Fey chuckled.

I felt it then, the pull in a direction I could not see. The Void, calling me to come and stay in blissful being. I melded it, this warp of soul and silence into movements I came to call the Trance. With this, I can too perceive all around me, feel and move at angles unseen by my perception. Fey said I seemed to Jump from one place to the next in rapid succession in the blink of an eye.

In experiments to refine this Trance I heard the sounds of the ocean. We crested a tall dune far beneath a black mountain of basaltic stone to find a lit compound. Four buildings, a landing pad, and a large central structure sat at the mouth of a small frozen bay. The storm had just passed.

"What's that?" I said hovering above the ground.

"I'm not sure," Fey chirped, "Probably a Golden Age research facility. The Antarctic was often a place of study."

We began to move closer and closer to the set of structures that looked untouched save for the build-up of snow and ice around the base of their walls. Doors hung open, and some horrible smell was on the wind. Sour and foul, metallic and enticing, something in me knew this scent: Death. Something in me caused me to move slowly. Around the main building different vehicles seemed to be sitting ready, their lights still on hovering just above the ground.

"They called them Sparrows," Fey said. "One person vehicles used as transport, how are they still running?"

The door to the main building hung open, a streak of something dark and slick leading down the stairs. It shone under the light of the Aurora, reflecting red back from the green and blues of the sky. I moved closer, landing on a ground that seemed hard packed with footprints. The Sparrows hummed with life, as if someone had just turned them on. Beside one lay a body, not affected by the ice and snow. She looked strange, a robotic figure with sparking eyes and twitching limbs that seemed to repeat in similar patterns and spasms. An Exo, I knew them, knew what they were. Sentient Machines that housed the minds of humans. On the side of the Sparrow nearest her lay a weapon, a rifle of some kind hanging from a buckled harness. I picked it up, feeling the cold metal and plastic frame of the gun. It felt...strange in my hands. Like I'd held something like this before. The motions of checking it's magazine, reloading, unlocking the safety, and checking the sights felt fluid and practiced. Though I'd never seen this weapon before, never held one in my hands. Not my hands, but still these hands maybe.

With myself armed I began to climb the steel stairs into the main building, they were sticky with blood and ice crystals. In the doorway lay a body, a man with nut brown skin and glasses on his face. Something about his face drew me to him, I plucked the glasses off his face and hung them from my collar, folding them against the fabric of the shabby robes I wore. I could hear music, a melodious and triumphant tune that warbled and popped over the intercom placed above the door. Bodies were strewn about the whole of the space, tables and chairs lay prone as if just knocked over. The room smelled of blood, and freshly cooked dinner. It was warm, warmer than I had ever known the world could be, and I now realized the truth of where I was.

"Mutiny," I said, "There was a Mutiny."

"What?" Fey said.

"The man I took the glasses from," I said. "He was in charge." I looked over the scene, it all played before me. Where they stood before they fell, who killed who, and what led to the confrontation. "They were trapped here, in this place after the Traveler and the Darkness fought, with the whole of the continent. Trapped in the same loop as us, it drove them mad, and they killed one another over the same meal they'd been eating forever."

"By the Light," Fey said with a shudder. "Then...what about us?"

"The Light," I said looking around, my vision becoming blurry. Tears, hot tears began to well up in my eyes. "It broke the cycle, keeps us safe."

"Vann, you're crying?" Fey asked.

"I am?" I said, feeling the tears on my face. "I suppose I am." I wiped the tears from my eyes. Why was I crying? Why was I sad? Did...did I know them at one point? Guilt shot through me, a pang of red-hot guilt like a knife in my heart. I fell to my knees and found myself face to face with a broken mirror. I saw it then, my face all weathered and worn. A beard fell just below my collar, and my hair fell below that. My skin pale white, my eyes the color of tea. But it was all murky, the features undefined. In some natural reflex I took the glasses and placed them on my face. The image blurred and then focused in a slight whir and click of some unseen gears in the frame. I could see clearly, more clearly than I ever thought I could.

The room was about 20 meters by 10 meters, comfortable for a couple of people but not this many crammed in one place all at once. Blue and green light latticed around the room from different computer interfaces, and several incandescent bulbs gave off warmth and soft illumination. It was like looking in a mirror, you see something you feel like you should know, should be able to place, but you can't.

"Vann," Fey said, hovering closer. "Are you alright?"

"I-I think so," I said standing to my feet, my hands were red with blood and spilled stew. "This place probably has something warmer than these clothes, thermal wear that won't hamper movement."

"Right," Fey said. "Maybe even a ship to get out of here."

I found new boots, gloves, and thin thermal wear. The stuff was as warm as furs but thin as leather. A long coat stretched down to my knees covering the batteries and packs that kept the clothes warm. They were fusion batteries, and I guessed they would never really run out as long as I stayed where I was. The last thing I did was shave, no more beard, and no more long hair. Nothing but a well-kept streak of dark brown hair down the middle of my head and stubble left. When I was all cleaned up, I found Fey looking over the computer's files.

"They were a research group funded by Clovis Bray," Fey said. "They have an Arcadia Class Jumpship on site but it's in some bunker below us. The whole place is locked down in some quarantine protocol. High Levels of sterile neutrino particles, unidentified radiation sources, I can't make sense of this." Fey looked over at me. "Not bad, that beard did nothing for you."

I chuckled. "Thanks, Neutrino's, that's...what high energy events right?" I surmised. "Or something to that effect. What causes this?"

"No idea, neither did these researchers, looks like they were looking into it until the Collapse," Fey looked through some more data. "Then there's records of a containment breach, then the quarantine, then nothing."

"Well we need that ship," I said. I rubbed my chin, it felt weird freshly shaved. "Maybe even load one of those Sparrows onboard if there's room."

"There's room," Fey said closing her searches. "The record says the ship is fully functional, maybe it'll even break the singularity around this place."

I began to scavenge for ammo, and found only a few extra magazines. "Then we'd better get moving, it's too hot in here anyway."

The entrance to the bunker was in the back of the main building, a lift that went down into the ice and rock of the continent. Down and down and down we went. I could hear the ocean above moving against the stones, the gravity of that Well that trapped us here heaving against the matter of where we stood. Until the lift stopped, and yellow lights began to flash.

"_DANGER: Quarantine Measures enacted, Unidentified Radiation Leak. If you can hear this then you are too close, please log your exposure with Miss Kilama Douglas in Records_," the intercom played this message over and over, skipping at intervals, popping and fizzing as we stepped off the lift and it began its ascent back to the surface. The place smelled like lightning, like a storm, and the whole of the room seemed to warp and shift on some unseen axis. Before us stood a large metal door with the words _Facility 2-F6: Noetics_ written in bold white. Yellow lights flashed as we approached, and a blue light emitted from above the door. It cast over us and a voice chirped in.

"_Security Personnel Identified, please take a Breathing Device provided before entry,_" the same voice said, and the lights stopped flashing. The whole place lit up, revealing a small locker, lit but a stuttering fluorescent bulb. Another light turned on above us, cold and sterile showing the jagged black rock we stood on. It shone with a sinister sheen as I felt myself pulled in a direction I could not see. An orange light turned on in the small office.

"Guess they were expecting you," Fey surmised.

I began to walk over, and found the light inside a cabinet with a small oxygen pack and a breathing apparatus.

"Good thing I shaved," I said, looking at Fey with a raised brow. I shouldered the tank and strapped the mask around my face. The coat had come with a hood and goggles and it only felt natural to put them on as well. Standing in front of the door again the same blue scanning light cast over us again and with a loud clicking sound the door began to grind open. I raised the rifle in my hands, and switched the light on.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

The large doors slid into unseen compartments in the walls, then with a hiss of steam and a loud click the way forward lay open to us. It was dark inside, save for the slight glow the back of the hall that extended before us. We marched, sure footed and prepared for the potential dangers ahead. I checked my corners, making notes of the length of the hallways, blind spots, and makers I could use to guide myself. Then we reached it, the Stain on the wall. It was like looking to a sea of stars that pushed deep into the wall, framed by sickly white light. It shifted and distorted my vision, sending warning signs through my mind that I was not prepared for what was down here.

A scuttle from somewhere startled me. I looked back down the hallway I walked through. Four divergent paths as hallways, a small windowed office, all made of the same clean white plastic like metal that echoed as I stepped on it. I could hear something in the room with me, something trying to be quiet as it shuffled. It emerged from the hallway closest to the door and turned to me. Black like a shadow, with a head of sickly grey light that swirled and shuttered. It turned towards me, it's frame full of stars and darkness. Another emerged, then another, and another, all of a similar gait and size. Behind them stood a large shadow within the main doorway. Well over two meters tall wielding a large black blade in one hand. The doors began to close, and I swear they were laughing at me. Mocking me as if I was some frightened and helpless rodent caught in a trap.

I leveled my rifle, aimed down sight and fired off a round at the one nearest me, aiming for center mass. It shifted, faster than I could track to the right. I fired off another round at another, the same thing happened. Worry and doubt began to build in the back of my mind and pool fear in my heart. Another round found nothing but the cold white of the walls. They began to move toward me, lights began to shutter and spark as they passed beneath them, and the doors behind the behemoth began to close, trapping me within this bunker.

Another round, this one catching one it the head. It began to suck in on itself, its form losing shape as it spun out of existence leaving behind the shadows of its being to dissipate. They continued their march, slow and imposing. Another round, then another, and another. I was a terrible shot, and began to grow frustrated with the rifle. I reloaded, in smooth almost practiced motions, dropping the empty magazine to the ground. I swung the rifle on my back along the harness and felt the fear and doubt pool into calm in my hand, then boil into will and spark alive with lightning. I fired off a bolt toward the nearest shape, causing a flash of energy to arc about the room. Lights bloomed to life and computers began to scroll through information. The thing I hit vaporized leaving the arc of lighting to catch on another form. I felt it attach, and then I pulled on the bolt like a rope, pulling the thing closer. I intended to land a kick in its chest, but it broke free of its bonds and tackled me beating my face with closed black fists. One of the goggles bent, then righted itself with a sucking motion. I struggled, struggled to push the thing off me. With a surge of energy, I kicked it from me in a spray of blue sparks. It landed some two meters from me and writhed in agony as energy crackled and pulled the thing apart. The remaining two creatures raised their hands, sending bolts of violet energy toward me. They found purchase in my leg and my shoulder, sending me spinning to the ground in a hot flash of pain and muffled screams.

I hit the ground hard, my head slamming into the floor with a loud crack. Something in me pulled me to my feet, but it became difficult to see. Something was in front of me, some dark shadow that caused the lights to flicker. I felt it grab me, and toss me through the windows of the small office with a crash. I crushed a computer and the desk it sat on, sending my rifle spinning away as it unbuckled from the harness on the coat. I was peppered with glass shards, burn wounds, and had a piece of the desk piercing my side. I struggled to stand, and was met with a swift punch to the face, sending the breathing mask flying to the wall. The thing picked my up by my throat, and began to squeeze. There were no eyes to stare in to, no weaknesses to exploit save for one; it was right in front of me. I grasped power from deep in me, the storm that roiled and roared in my body and thrust my palm toward the thing's chest in a crash of thunder and sparks. It hit the wall and dissipated in a display of torn shadows and warped space. I fell to my knees and began to cough, but I knew it wasn't over yet.

Before me stood the giant thing, armored and horned like a knight with a great sword on its shoulder. It lifted the blade, and swung down toward me, only giving me time to narrowly dodge left beneath a desk. It kicked the desk away and swung again. I dodged between its legs and found the rifle sitting amongst glass and broken circuitry. I scrambled for it, feeling it behind me, the shadow of the blade looming above me. The lights flickered and popped, sending sparks and shadows around the small office. I grabbed the rifle, turned and fired with a shout and call of defiance. The round landed within the depths of its warped head, sending it screaming and shifting back to wear it came from. The sword fell and dissipated before it could land in me.

I breathed, heavy, feeling the pain run through me as I fell to my back and began to laugh and cry and scream.

Fey appeared above me in a small shimmer of light. "You alright?" is all she said as she cast Light on me, pushing the embedded glass and piece of desk from my body. I felt the wounds close and my energy return. Even my clothes seemed to mend.

"Yeah _gasp _yeah I'm okay," I said between gulps of air. "I just, _Gasp, _need to catch, _gasp, _my breath."

"With all that walking you think you could handle this," Fey teased. "Whatever those things were."

"You don't know?" I said, pulling myself to my feet. I dropped the pack from my back, and removed the goggles. They did little good other than saving the glasses from being broken.

"No, but they felt…" Fey shifted in the air, spinning like she did when she was deep in thought, "they felt wrong, everything about them felt wrong."

"You don't think they're the only ones here?" I asked, buckling the rifle to its harness. _Don't think, just shoot right?_ I thought. _If I think too much about it, then I miss?_

"Maybe," Fey hovered closer. There was an urgency in her voice. Something close to worry and desperation. "Best we move quietly then?"

"Hopefully that will be enough," I sighed, knocking the broken computers next to my feet. "This bunker can't be that big can it?"

"We'll need a directory," Fey said, looking around the office. "Ah, that terminal over there."

She gestured toward a large blue screen. I walked over and touched it. It reacted and gave several options of interface. I pressed the map interface, revealing modest sized facility. But we were in luck, the hanger was located back down one of the hallways behind us, not too terribly far away. Fey approached and began to pepper the screen with light.

"What're you doing?" I asked.

"Getting us the keys," she replied. "Not only will we need access keys to get to the hanger, but authorization to get the ship running without setting off an alarm." She paused for a moment. "This place is fascinating; they were studying some sort of energy signature emitting from a meteor that crashed down here pre-Golden Age. Psionic abilities, Faith Healing, Weapon's Research, Bio-Engram Coding, they were doing a lot here on a very large budget."

"What was the energy signature?" I asked, looking around the hallway. The lights had come on properly, revealing the bullet holes and scaring from the fight. The hallways were labeled by letter, and the hanger was down hallway "C" and through a few checkpoints. It didn't seem to be too much trouble.

"It looks like it's a part of a larger project," Fey said. "Project E-1, designation _Progeny_. Research facilities involved spanned across the system, and reported back to someone named Dr. Sven Gennik on Enceladus. He was in charge of Noetic Sciences for Clovis Bray it seemed. Links to the Exo Project as well, but much of the research is on the Traveler, and this energy signature they seemed to think was…" Fey stopped.

"What Fey?" I turned back to see the interface had turned off. Fey was spinning in place, her shell shifting and churning in thought.

She stopped and let out a sigh. "Para-causally opposed to the Traveler," Fey said grimly. "They found…something here, something to do with the darkness, and they intended to use it for…something…they don't explain past that. It seems like this facility was kept in the dark."

We stayed there for a moment. The silence washing over us in waves for what felt like a fraction of eternity.

"But that doesn't mean anything now," Fey said, somewhat cheerfully. "The Traveler beat the Darkness, sacrificed itself to save not only humanity, but all of reality. As troubling as this feels, it's not something we should trouble ourselves with." Fey hovered closer. "We're almost out of this anyway, and I can get you to where you're needed."

I nodded and pulled the hood from my head. I turned off the heaters in the coat, and let the chill take over me. Adrenaline and stress leaving my body brought back a familiar cold and strain to my limbs and chest. I walked down hallways C, through the few sliding doors of checkpoint one, and found another Stain of Black, Stars, and ozone smelling air. Past the next checkpoint and I could feel the gravity around me warp and shift as if to pull me down and stop my movements. This place didn't want me to leave. I was being pulled between two places yet again, the oblivion of this frigid night, and the world of light beyond. This time there was no middle path, no balance between the darkness and light for me to find. I chose light that day as I strode into the hanger to find the Arcadia Jumpship sitting untouched in its dock.

Fey disappeared, and the Ship roared to life as the floor began to rise along pullies and gears in the walls. Red lights flashed and spun, warning sirens whined, and the ceiling began to open up to reveal a night sky of millions of stars behind a veil of green and blue light. Fey's voice called in my head.

"I'll transmat you and a Sparrow on, we'll be learning this thing on the go," Fey said, and the next thing I knew I was sitting in the cockpit of the ship. Lights flickering and flashing, screens sprung to life with images of the world around me, and a set of controls sat before me. Everything looks familiar, and shapes began to form in my mind. I knew how to fly this thing; I'd done it before. I'd flown this ship before. I flipped two switches above me, starting the takeoff sequence, spun up the engines with a few twists of a dial and input sequence on the console to my right. I clicked a switch and the scene around me turned from cold metal to the cold night of Antarctica. I saw a sparrow disappear in a shift of light from it's base to its tip and felt the weight of the ship shift slightly.

"You know how to fly?" Fey asked once I'd finished the sequence of checks.

"Yeah," I said, "I think I'm a pretty good pilot actually." I said with a smile. It was a gut feeling, something in me told me I was meant for the sky. The ship lifted from the ground, and rocketed off toward the horizon. Lights began to flash, warning me of the gravity and condensed space before me. I asked the ship for a readout, and imaging of the size of the space. It encompassed much of the south of the world, stopping short of the tip of the nearest continent. It wouldn't be long before we started feeling the effects of the event horizon of what we now new was a warp in space-time. I checked everything. Shields, Weapons, Hull Integrity, Fuel Supply, Near Light Drive, Pulse Drive, everything was in peak condition. The hull began to shake, and I could feel waves of gravity wash over me and pull and stretch me in all directions.

"Vann what are we doing?" Fey said, a little panicked. "We'll never make it through the Event Horizon."

"We'll make it," I said. But I was unsure, steering the ship straight toward the wall before me. On visual there was nothing but open sky and endless stars. But on sensors, there was a massive wall of writhing warped space that would turn us both to strands as thin as thread.

"Vann?" Fey said a little louder now. The hull was shaking louder. We were approaching fast, and I only had one idea. It would put the Pulse Drive and Near Light Speed Engine offline for good though. "Vann!" Fey was in a full panic as we could even see the warping on visual. We were close, the ship was rattling so loud I could barely think.

I set the weapons and shields to draw fuel from the Drives and then pushed all the Light I had into the very Frame of the Ship. Sending blue arcs of lightning about the cockpit. The screens fizzed and popped, they flickered in and out causing the warning lights to flash red.

"VANN!"

I fired at the wall, all my Light and the Pure power of Fission in an attempt to create an eddy for us to pass through. Everything went black then and I woke to a world of white.

Beneath my feet was soft white ice and snow that crunched and broke slightly beneath my boots. Vents of steam and ice flew from this lands surface and flowed into the sky. These particles spun and swirled amongst the stars and were carried up toward the pale-yellow ball above me. Rings of dust and ice encircled the planet and cast calm light like that of candle down over the surface of the place. I turned around and was met with a large mountain of ice, into which was built a tower. The tower was simple, sloped at the base where it met the icy ground, at the to of the tower shone a light, pulsing out in simple rhythm like a heartbeat, each flash a clear and vibrant blue. I blinked and woke to Fey bringing me back.

I was in the cockpit of the ship, it was black as pitch save for the few lights of the consoles and dials inside.

I grunted awake. "Did we make it?" I asked.

"Yeah," Fey said, somewhat worried. Though there was something else in her voice. Pride? Excitement? "Don't do that again" Is all she said when she seemed to find me staring at her. She seemed giddy, if not a bit stern.

I chuckled. "Yes Ma'am," is all I said, as I switched on the visual interface, and in my own way, saw the sun rise for the first time.


End file.
